OT: I've yet to finish The Witcher III, but the accolllades heaped upon it (eve nthis far after its release) are something I rarely see. And everyimte I do, it's because something was a masterpiece. So this game must be a masterpiece.

I also got about fifteen minutes in and thought that it was a head and shoulders above everything, EVERYTHING.

If I had to choose... Gotta give it to Witcher 3, with Undertale and MGSV as close seconds. Love all those games, but Witcher 3 is probably my favorite. MGSV is definitely the best playing game of the year, but the story had some huge issues, and I love me a good story (it is so much rarer in games than good gameplay). Undertale is about equal with Witcher in terms of writing quality, but... Undertale gave me 6-7 hours of damn good story, while Witcher 3 gave me 60+. Just by quantity of good story alone, Witcher wins.

Witcher 3 was an open world game that's pretty much raised the bar for all the ones that will follow. It was also just fun to play and gave me a pretty satisfying story even though it was my first experience with the Witcher.

That said, I'll have to pick Undertale because not only did it have a great story, fun gameplay, and wonderful characters. It also did interesting things that can only be done by a video game.

For me it's a toss up between it and Undertale, but I'm giving it to Bloodborne. Maybe it's the safer option, but the combat, the atmosphere and the lore make it exemplary in my mind.

God damn, why didn't I play Witcher 3 when I had the chance? No other game on the list (except possibly Cities) has made it through the year without some kind of hype backlash, but that game came out months ago and is still being heralded as a masterpiece.

I'm a massive fan of FromSoft's games, and I think Bloodborne might be my favourite one yet. I prefer the faster combat, the focus on aggressive gameplay, and the general Eldritch and Lovecraftian themes that run throughout. Witcher 3 is a very close runner up, which is my second favourite, but it is a damn close second. Just started my Undertale run tonight, only about an hour in, but really intrigued and it is looking very promising, but obviously I cannot say it is my favourite so far.

MGS5 I'm gonna pick up when it goes down a little more in price, I have a pretty hefty backlog to get through at any rate, so hopefully by Easter/Summer sales I'll get a chance. FO4 was a massive letdown for me, probably my biggest disappointment of the year, completely mimicking my reaction to Dragon Age: Inquisition last year. It just failed to deliver on so many aspects, and I have no desire to play it after only 26 hours. PoT, I'll get to it at some point, but again the backlog will prevent me for doing that for some time.

Well, there's the unfortunate fact that I haven't played any of the games on this list. Of the games I've played this year, the only ones that were actually released in 2015 were Halo 5, Legacy of the Void, Heroes of the Storm, and Strife, and the last two only count if you ignore that their betas started much earlier.

That said, since you've allowed it, I'll nominate LotV. I know that'll get me a lot of flak, but sorry, I've loved SC2 from start to finish, and god damn was LotV a finish I enjoyed.

Ok, got to admit, this years games are very hard to pick a top from. Fallout, Witcher and Bloodborne are amazing games for different directions the games sought to pursue. Metal Gear Solid I have heard is also pretty good, though not having played it yet, hard to know how it ranks. Then you have Undertale, probably the best demonstration of a game creator understanding the medium of the game I have seen in years with how the game it written and acknowledges the trappings of the game the story is being told in, in a way that makes sense. While not the best gameplay or visual by far, it earns a lot of credit for being clever and for characters that I just really like.

So sort of have to try to pick between the very solid overall games from slightly different purposes, or an oddball game that is exceptional in a couple categories but not as great as the other games in other categories.

Hmm, really hard to say. About the only thing I am sure about is that mortal kombat, while not bad, doesn't make the cut.

I think I am gonna go with Witcher. While not as innovatively clever with the concepts explored, it excels everywhere else, and isn't half bad story either.

I honestly thought I'd vote for StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. It was a great game, a fittingly bombastic finale to a series I truly love. While the gameplay was entertaining as ever, it was the visual design, the writing and above all the VO performance that kept me glued to the screen.

And yet, only a month after I finished the game I find it really doesn't occupy my mind at all. As good as it was, I can't say it had a very lasting effect on me, or that it particularly sticks out in my mind. You know what does?Bloodborne. I'd never played a FromSoft game to completion before, and it took me a long time to get through this one, but I stuck it out despite all the frustration, and for that I was rewarded with something special. It satisfied my itch for action, horror and mystery in equal measure, and even though all of my stated preferences for storytelling dictate I should have hated the way in which Bloodborne presented its story and lore, I loved it. The community buzz around it was a welcome bonus, as discussing ambiguous snippets of content was equally interesting as finding them in the first place. I'm grateful for this game being accessible to folks of middling skill (such as me) despite it being tough as nails. It never felt like a slog, despite occasional frustration, and its challenges rarely felt unfair. It was determination that saw me through it, and I still feel rather good about having been able to beat it. And the atmosphere... oh Lord, it'll be a long while, I feel, before I'll get to experience something dripping with atmosphere like Bloodborne. My GOTY 2015, no question.

I haven't played any of the listed games so it wouldn't be fair to vote.

From what I've followed, researched and viewed in terms of Let's Plays I'd probably give the nod to Undertale. The game really strikes me as vastly overhyped but it's got more charm and leaves a better impression than the other options.

I'm abstaining from this vote. I've only played three games on the list (cities: skylines, undertale and pillars of eternity) and didn't really get into them. I have mgs5 on steamshare but whenever I see somebody play it my immediate thought is 'looks like crysis, but too easy and too Kojima' and then I load up crysis.

I get the feeling that I'd have liked bloodborne the best of the games on this list, but I don't own a PS4.

My favourite this year was invisible inc, it being pretty much the only new release this year that I actually finished. I've mostly played and replayed games I already had or that are old. Hotline miami 2 was neat but failed to live up to the original in both story and gameplay for me. (the music was good though)

Witcher 3, for bringing in some of that much needed Diversity of course. Needs moar People of Polish!

Oh, and this vote really should have had some more exposure. I suspect most readers are going to miss this, hidden as it is in the attic of the gaming forum. I myself only noticed because I like to chime in on the Lost Games thread now and then. I mean, 81 votes so far... that's slightly on the low side for a Reader GOTY poll on a site such as this, no?

How about a do-over, with a proper article splashed all over the front page this time? It would be shame for most of the community to simply miss the chance to get in on the GOTY hype.

Witcher 3 is my personal vote. Being the only game of this year to absolutely exceed all my expectations and set a whole new standard for open-world RPG's, I can't gelp but appreciate CD Projekt Red's ambition and their ability to pull it off.

That said, if Bloodborne had come to PC, that probably would have been my original pick. Looks extremely fun and from what I've seen of Let's Plays, the atmosphere and art direction looks great.

On the merits of storytelling, I would pick Undertale, but considering that it's a gimmicky tedious disaster to actually play, I feel that there are better picks.

I've only played three of those games (Undertale, Fallout 4, Witcher 3), and its pretty easy to choose - Witcher 3, by far. Fun game play, an engaging story, massive amount of content, a world that actually feels interactive, fully realized characters... just loved it.

Fallout 4 was entertaining, but massively flawed. Undertale was... well, I ended up killing the last Undertale thread I was in, so I'll just say 'no thanks.'

B-B-B-BLOODBORNE! Because, I like some other weird Australian, came late to the Dark Souls party (haven't played either). So this one felt a lot more fresh to me. Where as Witcher and Fallout were not quite as fresh.

I did enjoy Undertale, but I, like AccursedTheory, don't want to be eviscerated by suggesting there were elements I didn't like in it. Solid game, not as fun or with same relay value as BB for me anyway.

Sadly, I haven't bothered with Legacy of the Void, mostly because I got the Terran campaign on the cheap, and that's tiding me over. Well, actually, Broodwar is tiding me over >_<

I'll probably pick up the battle chest when it comes out cheap though, so too late for me to vote / not vote for it.

Well, I have a few Best Of games for this year:Most Atmospheric Game:BloodborneBest Characters:The Witcher 3: Wild HuntBest Multiplayer Game:Warhammer: End Times - VermintideMost Predictable Disappointment:Star Wars Battlefront EA

Overall though, I have to give my GOTY vote to Bloodborne, nothing this year has gripped me in the same way that that game did, pulling me into it's deliciously Lovecraftian world with a masterfully executed twist which changes the entire game from a zombie survival horror esque game into a cosmic horror story involving the classics like unknowable truths, eldritch, uncaring gods, and cults. The gameplay is as solid as once tends to expect from From Software, though, the changes help it to have a pace and style all of its own.So then:GOTY:Bloodborne

P.S. you might want to announce this more widely and advertise it a bit more ffronw.

I was so un-hyped for this game that it sat on my shelf for four months before I started playing it. About 100 hours in, and after a lot of internal "are you sure?" discussions, I concluded that Witcher 3 is my favorite game of all time. A game I knew nothing about, a series I never played before (and heard wasn't very good), unfamiliar lore, and characters who were already well-established? None of that mattered. Witcher 3 blew my mind even more than it blew away my low expectations.

Not since Saints Row 4 and South Park: Stick of Truth have I laughed so hard while playing a game, and those two titles were built for comedy.

I haven't had as much fun with a close-combat mechanic since Dark Souls. As a rule, I never turn up a game's difficulty settings unless there are achievements attached to them, and while that was the impetus that drove me to play Witcher 3 in Death March mode, I feel like playing on an easier setting would have diminished the overall experience.

The soundtrack is amazing - one of only three that I listen to even when I'm not playing the games, the others being Silent Hill 3 and Skyrim. Of course, I'm not counting games with licensed music soundtracks, because that list would be massive. ;)

I'll end this digital make-out session with something I wrote about Witcher 3 in another thread, because it captures the essence of what made the game so special to me:

Throw in a scene-stealing rabbit submitting to an X-rated piggyback ride, a bird-loving druid (the gesture, not the animal), on-demand nudity, and the introduction of the word "blobtits" to my working vocabulary, and Witcher 3 is by far my favorite game in the history of games.

Undertale might be my favorite game of all time, so it gets my vote. I've never seen a game so intricately crafted and successful on every level. The world-building, writing, music, combat, and visuals are top notch, and considering that the "retro" aesthetic usually pisses me off to no end, that's saying quite a bit. The only thing released this year that even approaches it as far as I'm concerned is Heavensward, but that's not really a game unto itself, is it?

Caramel Frappe: probably would of picked Bloodborne if I owned the freaken game but no cigar since I have no PS4 ... *weeps in the corner*

Hey! Get on that already!!!! It's been around for 2 years! But seriously, it is fun. And I voted Bloodborne as I have yet to even boot up Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 doesn't get shipped to me till tomorrow.

The only two games on that list that I've played are Witcher 3 and Fallout 4. Witcher 3 is the better of the two on technical aspects alone before we even get into story or overall quality of the content, in which Witcher 3 also wins, so I'll go with Witcher 3 for my vote.

IceForce:Ah, so it's just a 'flat' poll this year? (ie: no 'brackets' or multiple 'rounds' of voting?)

I prefer it this way, it's simpler.

Last time we did a flat poll Mass Effect 3 won GOTY. It made me giggle with glee. :D

Oh my. That sounds like it probably caused an exceptional uproar!

I had to go with Bloodbourne because, yeah, same boat as many others, Witcher 3 is just too beast ;-;There's always LPs, I guess.Undertale feels like it left me just as I got so much into it. I'm like "No...NO! THAT'S IT!?!?! IT CAN'T BE OVER ALREADY, NOOOOOOOO!"I must say I never completely broke and overturned a game so fast though. Straight from ending back into replaying for a week straight, just trying to shake out that little bit more from it. Ending like it does, I can see why there was such a huge fandom explosion though! xD

Also it had such a nifty little thing I hadn't seen before, attack patterns changing based on what type of enemies and how many...but the bosses are all encountered solo, and there's no creatures that call for backup, and the possible encounters seem to have pre-set configurations rather than be totally random. So, so close to perfect...Really, even more than more undertale, what undertale makes me want is a traditional 50-hour RPG with that battle system!

i guess ill go for the underdog again. Cities: Skylines were awesome, fixed what EA couldnt and was made and published by amazing people. Its early release probably made many people forget about it by now, but it was a great game made even greater by active modding community.

I loved Witcher 3, but it reminded me how inferior gaming is to literature... and in a sense saddened me. Sure, a great game, but extremely stupidly flawed.

The other two I dont like quite as much but are... exceptional pieces of game design and to me less flawed. With Skylines also being immune to bad comparisons as it is gaming at its very best where elder mediums dont simply crush it.